Edna O'Brien

Might as well get it out of the way from the beginning: Charles Gordon, Lord Byron, was a bad boy. Today we would consider him a serial rapist, pedophile, bankrupt, political meddler, philanderer, adulterer, effete, alchoholic, bearer of sexually transmitted diseases, slanderer, and libeller. Back in the early 19th century he would also have been considered a criminal for committing incest and sodomy, although sodomy today doesn't have the same cache it once did, except maybe in Saudi Arabia and Russia.

This is the poster boy for the Romantic Movement and possibly the first celebrity in the modern sense. This is the man your kids are studying in those demure liberal arts colleges in New England. And like modern celebrities, he got away with it all.

In "Byron in Love," Edna O'Brien captures much of the hero worship that accompanied him from his early 20's right up until his death after catching a cold at 37.

Although he was born into wealth, a libertine father drove his family into poverty. Then, with the death of an heirless uncle, he inherited the title and accompanying wealth. At the age of 10! Sort of like winning the lottery. In a big way.

Already in his teens he fathered a bastard, compensated for a birth deformity by learning how to fight with his fists at boarding school, and keep within close reach a boxing coach. Bully? You might say that.

He took his seat in the House of Lords and made a few speeches championing liberal causes. And he was always one step ahead of his creditors. Of which there were many.

And he wrote. For the day, he wrote shocking and shockingly beautiful poetry. And this drove the girls (and the boys) crazy. So crazy in fact, the Pope sent spies to trail him during his years in Italy seducing maidens and matrons alike.… (mais)

I could have categorized The Country Girls under "A Trilogy," and perhaps reading all three novels would have helped me appreciate this one more. Not being Irish, Catholic or a child of the '50s (much less female) prevented me from comprehending the groundbreaking nature of Edna O'Brien's story without the insights provided in the introduction (which I read after the novel and should be taken with a grain of feminist salt).

The Country Girls is the story of two young Irish girls, Caithleen and Bridget, who maintain a tenuous friendship through the death of Cait's mother and their "incarceration" in the convent they were sent to, ostensibly to be educated. During this time, fourteen-year-old Cait begins a highly romanticized affair with a much older married man referred to as Mr. Gentleman due to her difficulty pronouncing his surname. She is ultimately expelled from the school her family cannot afford without the scholarship she earns after succumbing to the malignant influence of her purported friend. Whereupon the girls take up joint residency of a room in a lower-class boardinghouse in Dublin and their "education" continues.

Another book on all versions of the 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list, The Country Girls reads like a train wreck in the making, with the premonition of catastrophe awaiting in the subsequent volumes.… (mais)

Cercando informazioni sul contesto nel quale è nato questo romanzo ho scoperto che Edna O'Brien è ancora viva. Non so perché fossi convinta del contrario e spero sia (e rimanga) un'arzilla signora di ottantacinque anni (in effetti dalle foto sembra un bel peperino).

Certo che per aver scritto e pubblicato Ragazze di campagna nell'Irlanda del 1960 non poteva che essere una tipa tosta. Il romanzo, infatti, è parecchio critico riguardo alla repressione sessuale alla quale erano costrette le donne e all'educazione impartita dalle suore – e, mi viene da aggiungere, subita dalle allieve – che la O'Brien ha sperimentato in prima persona.

Il fatto bizzarro è che mi si dice che Ragazze di campagna sia un romanzo gettonato tra gli integralisti cattolici (qui). Mah. Forse si immedesimano nella frustrazione sessuale delle protagoniste. O forse non hanno semplicemente capito di cosa parli. Non so quale delle due ipotesi sia la peggiore...

In ogni caso, Ragazze di campagna mi ha fatto riflettere anche sul fatto che non credo di aver mai letto un romanzo dove si parli bene delle suore e delle scuole da loro gestite. Evidentemente mandare i/le figl* dalle suore non è un buon investimento per la loro futura felicità: pensateci bene, genitori, o rischierete di essere sputtanati e ricordati per sempre in qualche romanzo per aver fatto questa infelice scelta educativa.

Nella speranza che nelle attuali scuole cattoliche non vigano i metodi di insegnamento dittatoriali che si leggono in Ragazze di campagna. O che voi stessi non siate genitori violenti come il padre di Caithleen, protagonista del romanzo. La pagine nelle quali Caithleen e suo padre si trovano a dover interagire sono piene di una tensione claustrofobica che trasmette tutta l'angoscia di ritrovarsi al cospetto di una persona violenta dalla quale non si può scappare, a meno di raggiungere l'indipendenza.

Molto interessante, poi, è il rapporto tra Caithleen e la sua migliore amica, Baba, molto più sfrontata e con un carattere decisamente prevaricatore. La loro amicizia, infatti, è costantemente sbilanciata a favore di Baba e, durante la lettura, mi sono chiesta più volte come mai queste due siano amiche e non sono riuscita a darmi una risposta soddisfacente. Forse sono un po' troppo lontana da quel tipo di ambiente.

In definitiva, la scrittura di Edna O'Brinen mi è piaciuta molto e sono piuttosto curiosa di sapere come continuano le avventure di Caithleen e Baba, dato che Ragazze di campagna è il primo volume di una trilogia.… (mais)

More of a novella, O'Brien does a tremendous job of bringing us inside the mind of a woman, Ellen, who is hurting and insecure after a divorce. In an effort to forget, Ellen takes a holiday in France, and basically behaves in a way that ends up reinforcing her sadness and depression. I loved the way this book was written. O'Brien really takes you inside Ellen's mind the entire time, and it is hard not to empathize with her feelings and situation and her deep deep loneliness. You feel like you are watching a girlfriend do all sorts of things that you know are bad for her, and you just want her say please stop doing this to yourself, but you also know she won't listen.

Unfortunately, the novel takes one misstep (in my opinion), and it's a pretty big one. Hence the four stars instead of five. But because I think the rest of the book is so exquisitely rendered, it really didn't diminish my enjoyment of the writing for long. Just a little "seriously?" came into my mind at this point. It's hard to share without spoiling.

So if you require books be uplifting in order to enjoy them, don't pick this one up. If you want to see how a masterful author can develop a character so real seeming that you want to befriend, help, and guide her, this book does that and more.… (mais)